Edward Burns Reveals He's Writing a "Brothers McMullen" Prequel

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Filmmaker Edward Burns poses in front of a poster for his first film "The Brothers McMullan" during the Sundance Film Festival on Friday, Jan. 18, 2013 in Park City, Utah.

Edward Burns is mulling a return to his Irish roots.

The actor-director announced to his devoted Twitter followers that after being unable to come up with a worthy story to justify a follow up to his 1995 breakthrough comedy-drama, "The Brothers McMullen," he's decided to do a prequel.

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"I had to throw out the McMullen sequel idea. I just didn't fall in love with any of the ideas I had about where to find them 20 yeas later," he tweeted Tuesday, Oct. 15. "So instead of McMullen sequel I'm writing a prequel. Set in 1986, Jack is a senior in college, Barry a senior in HS, Pat finishing 8th grade."

Released in 1995, "The Brothers McMullen" centered around three Irish Catholic brothers from Long Island dealing with faltering relationships and family dynamics. The flick also served as the feature acting debut of "Nashville" star Connie Britton.

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Burns, 45, revealed he's also planning to "use all unknowns for the cast" with the exception of Mr. McMullen, for whom he'll cast a "name."

"I'm writing the script now. If all goes well, we'll shoot sometime in the late Spring," the filmmaker wrote, (perhaps jokingly) adding, "Mrs. McMullen will hit the old country while Mr. McMullen hits the bottle."

When he hasn't been busily catching up on "Breaking Bad," "Game of Thrones" and "House of Cards," Burns has been admirably plying his trade on the indie film scene, and proving that filmmakers can make quality art-house movies on ultra low-budgets and self-distribute via iTunes, video on demand and other digital platforms.

The "Saving Private Ryan" star's most recent directorial outing was last year's critically praised "The Fitzgerald Family Christmas," which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival.